Dogs of War
by WildCard3323
Summary: Noble Six was a Spartan. A killing machine, made that way ever since she saw her parents burn as a child. And that's all she thought she was, until she's forced from an altered Operation: UPPERCUT into a world of chaos, one that has more than enough killing machines to go around. That being said, one more ally couldn't hurt Diamond Dogs. At least...as long as they stay an ally.


**Chapter 1: The Woman Who Saved the World**

 _ **Covenant Corvette; Ardent Prayer**_

 _ **14:00 hours, August 14, 2552, UNSC Standard Battle Calendar**_

A figure in dark grey armor walked back down one of the purple hallways of the corvette Ardent Prayer, her calmly striding past the corpses of marines and aliens alike. The armor she was wearing splattered in a myriad of different splashes of color, particularly on her armored gauntlets and boots. The majority of it was the viscous indigo or cyan blood of various aliens, though there were a few crimson spots too.

As for her armor itself, since it covered every inch of her skin, it made her look almost more like a war robot than any living creature. Her attitude matched that, as it was more of what someone expected from a machine than a human being. She soon would almost casually stroll into the hangar, moving surprisingly silently for someone in her armor.

A larger figure walked over, hefting a massive machine gun with a superhuman ease, carefully studying their ally. They then would speak up with a male, Hungarian accented voice. "The marines?"

"Dead." She responded immediately, her voice flat, without a hint of emotion. "But so is everything else I found."

He let out a quiet sigh, though he wasn't surprised by the answer. "Well, I've got some good news, and bad news. This bird's taken some fire, and her thruster gimbal's is toast, so the only way off of this slag heap, is gravity."

The woman didn't speak for a few moments, until eventually she realized that he wanted her to. "And the good news?"

 _"At current velocity, fifty three seconds to endpoint."_ A calm, though somewhat monotone voice quietly spoke into both of their helmets. It belonged to Auntie Dot, the "dumb" AI assigned to Noble Team.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." He muttered in response to the AI's statement, before he would slide his helmet off and toss it to the floor. "That was the good news. The bad news is that the timer's fried, and I'll have to detonate it manually."

The statement actually startled her a little, a bit of uncertainty having made its way into her voice, though it's just barely noticeable. "That's a one way trip..."

"We all make it sooner or later." He then offered her his dog tags, only to have them pushed back in a gentle rebuke. He blinked once in surprise. "Six, get going. They'll need you down there."

"You're going, not me." Six just replied quietly, as she picked up his discarded helmet and gave it to him. After a moment, the big man reluctantly took it.

"Ruining my dramatic moment, are we?" He asked quietly, though she just stared back at him from behind her mirrored visor. "Alright, I'll bite. Why are you doing this?"

"You're a Spartan II. Not only that...if this war ends, I think you might be the only one of us who manages to live with that. You're more human than I am." She gently nudged him towards the hangar's protective shield, knowing she didn't have the strength to overpower him. "Besides, dying is what Spartan Threes are meant for."

Jorge didn't reply verbally, instead giving her a bit of a nod, before his helmet would mask his features once again.

"And Jorge?" She asked, a moment before the S-II had intended to jump.

"Yeah?" He stopped and turned back to face her, before seeing her remove her helmet for the first time among the group.

"Tell them to make it count." Her dark grey, almost black colored eyes stared at him from behind her messy brown hair, that partially covered her face. To some, her deathly pale features might be considered attractive, if not for the several scars crossing her face, and the combination of rage and sorrow visible in her eyes, that didn't travel to any other parts of her expression.

"I will...good luck, Six. Until we meet again." He briefly studied her face, as to not forget it, before he leapt backwards through the shimmering field of energy, and into the blackness of space. She watched as he floated away back towards the planet, leaving her alone with the bodies.

The quiet spartan sighed, her briefly having gave a glance to her own dog tags, before she slid them back into her armor. She looked out the hangar in a hope of seeing...something. Something that would mean she didn't have to die. Instead, she only saw the massive maw of the supercarrier's hangar engulf the corvette, and her with it. The Spartan Three slid her helmet back on with a practiced ease. "Until we meet again, Jorge. Whenever that may be."

She turned and walked over to the rear of the Pelican, her hand hovering over the activation button for the improvised bomb. The soldier hesitated, taking a few deep breaths, before she felt the artificial gravity of the carrier overwhelm the corvette's own systems. Knowing she was out of time, she slammed her palm onto the button, hearing the modified slipspace drive start to whir and hum with an increased intensity.

Pinpricks and aches spread through her body in seconds, before Six fell to her knees, unable to stand. Spots danced in her vision, before her visor filled with static. At this point, she had no idea if it was her armor acting up...or if it was her. Six heard the noises rise to a crescendo of screaming, before a wave of energy enveloped her, and threw her fifty meters skyward, her slamming against the roof of the hangar, before she plummeted to the deck.

Due to the agony that had taken hold of her body, she gladly gave in to the darkness moments later, just hoping the pain would end.

 ** _Somewhere Far Away_**

In another universe entirely, a man stood alone on a platform above the ocean, smoking a type of E-Cigarette. He seemed unaffected by the stormy weather, simply glancing to the horizon. Though soon enough, something happened that did warrant a reaction. The sky split open violently, jagged spears of lightning surrounding a large, purple-black rift in the clouds.

He pulled out binoculars and stared up at the anomaly, then seeing Ocelot and Miller run out from the main building moments later. Just in time for a massive purple object to emerge from the portal, gouts of flame and plasma venting from multiple places. It hung in the sky for a few moments, before it began drifting towards the coastline.

"Whoah...not what I expected to see today." Ocelot quietly remarked, though Miller is a bit more practical.

"Will someone please get me a trajectory on that thing? If it's going to hit us..."

"It won't. But I would like to know where it lands." Venom Snake, or if you would rather call him after the one he's impersonating, Big Boss, spoke quietly.

"Why? Do you intend to go to it?" Ocelot asked, sounding quite curious about the thing himself.

"Well, it could be aliens, in which case, it would be better that we get there and introduce ourselves before the Soviets do. Or Cipher." Snake replied, putting the binoculars away as he sees the thing disappear beyond the horizon.

"Or it could be a trap. You're not going alone." Miller said immediately.

"If it's a trap, the last thing we want is to get more people killed in it."

"And its safer for you. Besides, you're needed elsewhere. The CIA wants us to retrieve a prototype weapons system from Da Smasei Laman. That's a literal Fortress at this point. You're the only soldier capable of doing a mission like that."

"That can wait, I-"

Ocelot cleared his throat, causing both of the other men to stare at him. "You two, stop arguing, please. I'll go, and take a squad from our Combat team and our Research teams each with me. Boss, go do the CIA's op. I can handle this."

The two stopped their arguing and simply looked at each other for a few moments. Snake eventually just let out a quiet sigh and nodded, not seeing the point in arguing any more. The man then walked over to his helicopter, a rather large canine already waiting inside, him just scratching it behind the ear as the aircraft took off. After he's gone, Ocelot called in his own helicopter, while Miller just gave him a strange look.

"Good luck." Miller finally said, with some reluctance, Ocelot just nodding in reply.

"I'll tell you what we find." He then began walking over to the second chopper that arrives, this one loaded with six Diamond Dog soldiers, though a second chopper can be seen rising from the research platform as they take to the skies.

"So pilot, where exactly is this thing going? And how big is it, I never got a good look." Ocelot asks after the door shuts, breaking the awkward silence that had begun to form.

"The estimated area of impact is close to the Afghan-Pakistan Border" The pilot repeated the second part of the question over his radio, waiting a few moments to get a reply before they would answer Ocelot's question. "It's a bit under a kilometer long, at least, that's what the research team thinks."

"That is...quite big." One of the soldiers commented. "I think. Honestly, I use Imperial, how big is that?"

"Three, almost four times the size of an Essex class aircraft carrier, dumbass. Or about...nine of your american football fields." Another replied a moment later, this one being a female, and having a light British accent.

Ocelot just chuckled a bit as he listened to the bantering, relaxing back in his seat and enjoying the ride. About a fifteen minute helicopter ride later, he noticed the female soldier slide open the main door and look down, letting out a bit of a gasp.

"Yeah, that is very large." She said quietly, in a bit of an awed tone.

"That's what she said..." One of the others muttered.

"Grow up. Sir, where are we landing? Cause I see the easiest entrance is probably in that top bit..."

Ocelot gave a casual shrug, him getting up as well and taking a look through the opposite door. "I assume that's where we're landing, then...though there seems to be a few fighters that beat us here." He studied the two intact Sabres, not recognizing the design, though they looked too similar to human ships to be alien.

The helicopter lowered itself down to the "landing pad" area, setting itself gently down on the deck. Ocelot hopped out almost immediately after, quickly glancing around around and spotting four sets of landing clamps that had no doubt been ripped off of other craft through...some sort of trauma to the main ship. "I wonder what sheered these off? Not the crash...maybe the portal thing the research team says they saw. Oh well." He then cleared his throat, walking over to a hole, curious on why there was no door for the opening, on what seemed to be a spacecraft. Though that was when he examined the hole a bit more closely and saw a faded blue energy field covering it. "Someone want to touch that first?"

All of the soldiers immediately shook their heads, before Ocelot just sighed, crouching and waving his hand through it. "Its harmless. And I do hope you're not going to be this scared throughout the entire mission." With that, he stepped into the hole, sliding down a smooth pillar-like structure, onto a raised ring, where he noticed several dead aliens, of a few different species. He then saw a rappel line being thrown down, the other soldiers sliding down and fanning out.

He just strode confidently towards what he assumed was a door, it's purple lights flickering as it slid open, before stopping halfway with an awful grinding noise, the crash having obviously messed up a few things. Though as he stepped through, he found a dead human in full armor of sorts, which was partially burned away and such. Judging from their position, which was lying facing away from the door, they had been killed immediately upon stepping through the doorway. He knelt next to the corpse and examines an eagle symbol on their helmet, before hearing the other soldiers step through. "Two of you, stay back and guard this room. The rest of you, we're going to find out what happened here." They continue deeper into the structure, none of them aware that they had several stalkers following them.

As they walk deeper into the ship, they passed by several more human corpses, and many more alien ones. It made Ocelot nervous, less so from the aliens, and more so from the fact that something had to be helping these humans if they killed this many. Still, it doesn't take long before he heard heavier footsteps that were off pace to his fellow soldiers. "Everyone stop."

They did as they were ordered, all looking confused, before Ocelot spotted...something. It almost looked like a heat shimmer, so he decided to fire at it with his pistol. The round struck something...which promptly seemed to materialize and lunge, brandishing a four foot long weapon, that consisted of two curved blades of energy. It slashed at one of the soldiers, neatly bisecting the man near the waist. In response, the humans all would open fire, though the rounds just deflected off of some sort of energy shield. Ocelot then yanked back one of the other soldiers a moment before the blade passed by where their head had been a heartbeat prior. It let out a nearly deafening roar, four mandibles splaying in anger, attacking again, though a grey blur leapt past Ocelot and grabbed the alien's wrist, before shoving it roughly back. The creature stumbled a few steps backwards.

After a moment, Ocelot recognized the grey figure standing between them and the creature as human, though it was nearly a foot taller than him. He watched it draw a combat knife, holding it in a reverse grip and settling into a combat stance. Despite the crazy day that they had been having, it still managed to surprise him as the alien starts speaking English.

 _"Demon...so you survived as well. This will be a worthy fight, then."_

The figure didn't reply, her just waiting a moment, before the alien lunged and attempted to impale her. And, at a speed he didn't even know was possible, the gray armored being simply sidestepped the attack. Before Ocelot could blink, she had grabbed the alien's arm and promptly flipped the larger being over her shoulder, using a combination its own momentum and her enhanced strength to slam it onto its back with a loud thud. Though as she tried to lean and thrust her blade through its throat, the elite grabbed her wrist and roughly forced it back as they stand up. It then shoved the "Demon" away and released her, the message clearly being 'it won't be that easy'.

This time, the alien just slashed at her, choosing to keep its opponent at a distance with its longer reach, and far larger weapon. As to be expected, she simply sidestepped the first slash, before ducking under the next and leaping back to dodge the third. Though as one of the Diamond dogs personnel tries to help, firing their assault rifle at it, the alien simply blocked the rounds with their energy sword, before closing the distance with two steps and slashing, cutting them diagonally into two pieces. It gave the armored human an advantage, though, her using the Sangheili's distraction to charge at it, slamming the alien into the purple wall with a distinct clang of its armor meeting the metal.

She pinned its sword arm there long enough to fire three shots into its hand with her sidearm, causing the creature to drop their weapon, before a blade of energy comes out of its other wrist, it attempting to ram it into her stomach. The attack failed, her easily shifting herself so the attempt just missed, before bringing her knife up and ending the aliens life with a quick slash to the throat.

The armored being let the alien spasm for a few moments, before its death throes would cease. She thenlowered the now dead elite to the ground surprisingly gently. The strange person then slowly rose to their feet, flicking the blue blood off of her knife before sheathing it. She then turned to face Ocelot, staring at him from behind her pale gold colored visor.

He glanced at the corpse, before back at her, deciding on the question least likely to piss her off. "What was that thing?"

She didn't reply for a few seconds, before speaking in an emotionless voice, sounding partly synthesized from the armor. "Sangheili Zealot. One of the higher ranking elite classes, and with shields strong enough to withstand...a lot. Even more so, with your...rather ancient weapons."

He noticed the UNSC emblem on her armor in a few places, along with the unrecognizable weapons she carried. "Alright...this probably isn't the time for questions, but who are you, and are there any more alive?"

"If there's any Covenant left, they're invisible like this one. Or they're in the reactor room, since its locked down. Either way, there's nothing within shooting distance. And I'm Spartan B312." She seemed a bit confused as she starts actually studying Ocelot, though nothing changed in her voice as she spoke. "Why are you dressed like that?"

Ocelot looked down at his clothes, fairly aware they weren't standard, though he just shrugged in response to her question. "Its what I prefer to wear. Can I assume this isn't your ship? And could you tell me why you called our weapons 'ancient'?"

She didn't move, besides an almost imperceptible tilt of her head. "Not my ship...What planet am I on? And...what year is it?"

"Earth, and...wait, are you from the future? The year is 1984."

"I'm from 2552, but whether it's this future might be up for debate." The rather unusual soldier fell silent yet again, which made Ocelot a bit more curious about her.

"Alright, enough talking for now. Would you mind coming back with us to our base? I can promise that no invasive testing will be performed."

She looked away, her studying the bodies, the Spartan seeming more than a little stumped on how to answer, her unsure of if she could trust them. "Not yet...I'm going to the engine room to clear the Covenant from this ship, and hopefully the planet. As far as I know, the Covenant were spacefaring long before my people were, and I'm pretty sure the last thing you all want is a beacon summoning their fleets here. If you're any indication of humanity's strength, they wouldn't even have much of a challenge."

The soldier then turned away and started to stride away, her clearly not exactly eager to go anywhere with the strange group. Still, it didn't stop Ocelot from calling out after her.

"Do you need any help?"

The figure paused for a few heartbeats, her taking a moment to think, before just walking off without another word, the answer clearly being a 'no'

"So...are we going after her, or letting her go?" The female Diamond Dog member from earlier chose to ask after a few seconds, her standing a few feet behind Ocelot.

"Second choice. Face it, she could probably kill us all without us even hurting her. Hell, we don't even know if our weapons will pierce that armor. Its probably better we keep our distance."

"And if Cipher, or the Soviets get her on their side?"

"We hope to god that doesn't happen, or failing that, that Big Boss can defeat her." Ocelot sighed a bit, before turning and starting to leave.

Six slowly walked away from the group, having been listening to them the whole time, several thoughts racing through her fairly exhausted mind. Honestly, she had barely gotten any sleep (short of being knocked unconscious, which never really gave her much rest), since the mission to Visegrad Relay, when they learned the Covenant was on Reach. Since the human body wasn't designed for combat after 22 days of exhaustion, she reacted slowly when she heard a thud on a nearby wall, capable of shaking the deck beneath her feet. The Spartan glanced back to see Ocelot and the others at the other end of the hallway, looking confused as well.

THUD. The second hit was even harder, making even Six stumble a bit, though it sounded like it was coming from the wall next to her. As the third strike hit the wall, the purple metal bulged slightly, making Six instinctively back towards Ocelot and the others. By now, she knew there were only a few creatures capable of doing that amount of damage, so when the wall shattered, she wasn't surprised as a behemoth in dull gray armor bursts out from the hole. She barely managed to leap back a few more feet as the massive slab of metal, known as the Hunter's shield, slammed into where she had been standing a moment prior.

As she saw the customary green glow of the alien's plasma cannon charge up, she slapped her rifle onto her back, before charging the alien behemoth. She slid under its shield as it swung at her again, the green glow fading from its cannon. In one smooth motion, she quickly stood, pulling a plasma grenade out and sliding it inside the mass of worms at the creature's midsection. Though, before she can activate it, her eyes widen beneath her visor as her hand is pulled away from the grenade by the worms, being held in place just long enough for the Mgaelekgolo to bring its arm back. With her distraction of ripping her arm free, she didn't notice the shield until it's already moving, and by then, it was too late.

The sharpened edge of it struck her diagonally on the chest, shattering her shielding in an instant, before it ripped through the durable titanium outer shell of her armor. The woman then felt quite a bit more pain as the shield bit through the layers below as well. And that was before it struck her ribs, breaking a few, and causing quite a bit of muscle and organ damage. Though that was where the shield stopped, the rest of the force being transferred to her body. This lifted her boots from the ground, and flung her into the air once more.

Seconds later, the soldier did her best to blink spots from her vision, the woman lying sprawled on the ground, trying rather pathetically to sit up, while her body screamed in protest. Six looked down at where she had been injured, her simply watching apathetically as the blood leaked out from the gash in her armor. Six then saw the glow of the plasma cannon again, her briefly having a few flashbacks, from her watching her parents be vaporized out the window of an evacuation transport, to her first day of training, various missions, and finally, her experiences with Noble team.

Six collapsed onto her back, more or less accepting death at this point, when she heard the Hunter's arm cannon charge up...and she couldn't move. Not from pain or anything, she had just noticed her armor stiffen a fraction of a second before the impact of the green energy. A presence in her head and armor that wasn't her had just activated her armor's locking features, something that had completely slipped her mind. Still, she soon ran out of time to think, as she felt one of the most intense pains she had ever experienced, her vision literally turning white, before it faded rapidly to black as she fell unconscious.

 **Author's Note:** **_To anyone returning to this story, it got rewritten, obviously. And I decided to stop being lazy and continue it. Starting by rewriting the chapters already released, as I didn't really like them. So...it'll be a while until actually new chapters are added, though Chapters 2, 3, and 4 will all be re-released...probably within the next month. After that, I'll be getting to work releasing chapter 5. Also, no promises on whether I'll continue_ A New War. _I've kind of lost interest in it, at least for now._**

 ** _To new readers, thanks for noticing this story. Please let me know what you think in the comments._**


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